Contact Details

Curriculum Vitae

In 1996 I completed my Master Degree in psychology at the Catholic University in Nijmegen, specialising in neuropsychology. Since 1998, I work at the Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry at the University Medical Centre Utrecht. I have contributed to numerous structural MRI studies of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and normal controls. I am also involved in (international) twin studies. In September 1998 I began a PhD program in Neurosciences and in addition to this, I was working as the dataflow co-ordinator within the Structural Neuroimaging section. In 2001-2002 I spent 6 months as an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK. I defended my thesis on brain volume changes in schizophrenia on October 15th 2004. I remained at the Department of Psychiatry as an assistant professor in Neuroimaging.

Current Research Projects

My main interests are age-related changes in the healthy and affected brain, imaging genetics and twin and sibling studies with the focus on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and the effects of genotype on how stress affects the brain.

List of publications

Peer reviewed (selection)

Koolschijn PC, van Haren NE, Cahn W, Schnack HG, Janssen J, Klumpers F, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS. Hippocampal volume change in schizophrenia. J Clin Psychiatry, 2009, in press.
 
Koolschijn PC, van Haren NE, Lensvelt-Mulders GJ, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS. Brain volume abnormalities in major depressive disorder: a Meta-analysis of magnetic resonance imaging studies. Hum. Brain Mapp. 2009 in press.

Van der Schot AC, Vonk R, Brans RG, van Haren NE, Koolschijn PC, Nuboer V, Schnack HG, van Baal GC, Boomsma DI, Nolen WA, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS. Influence of genes and environment on brain volumes in twin pairs concordant and discordant for bipolar disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009 Feb;66(2):142-51.

Brans RG, van Haren NE, van Baal GC, Schnack HG, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE. Heritability of changes in brain volume over time in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008 Nov;65(11):1259-68.

Brans RG, van Haren NE, van Baal GC, Staal WG, Schnack HG, Kahn RS, Hulshoff Pol HE. Longitudinal MRI study in schizophrenia patients and their healthy siblings. Br J Psychiatry. 2008 Nov;193(5):422-3.

Van Haren NE, Cahn W, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS. Schizophrenia as a progressive brain disease. Eur Psychiatry. 2008 Jun;23(4):245-54.

Van Haren NE, Bakker SC, Kahn RS. Genes and structural brain imaging in schizophrenia. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2008 Mar;21(2):161-7.

Koolschijn PC, van Haren NE, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS. Hypothalamus volume in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2008 Apr;18(4):312-5.

Van Haren NE, Hulshoff Pol HE, Schnack HG, Cahn W, Brans R, Carati I, Rais M, Kahn RS. Progressive brain volume loss in schizophrenia over the course of the illness: evidence of maturational abnormalities in early adulthood. Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Jan 1;63(1):106-13.

Van Haren NE, Hulshoff Pol HE, Schnack HG, Cahn W, Mandl RC, Collins DL, Evans AC, Kahn RS. Focal gray matter changes in schizophrenia across the course of the illness: a 5-year follow-up study. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2007 Oct;32(10):2057-66.

Cahn W, van Haren NE, Hulshoff Pol HE, Schnack HG, Caspers E, Laponder DA, Kahn RS. Brain volume changes in the first year of illness and 5-year outcome of schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry. 2006 Oct;189:381-2.

Rijsdijk FV, van Haren NE, Picchioni MM, McDonald C, Toulopoulou T, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS, Murray R, Sham PC. Brain MRI abnormalities in schizophrenia: same genes or same environment? Psychol Med. 2005 Oct;35(10):1399-409.
 
Van Haren NE, Picchioni MM, McDonald C, Marshall N, Davis N, Ribchester T, Hulshoff Pol HE, Sharma T, Sham P, Kahn RS, Murray R. A controlled study of brain structure in monozygotic twins concordant and discordant for schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry. 2004 Sep 15;56(6):454-61.

Schnack HG, van Haren NE, Hulshoff Pol HE, Picchioni M, Weisbrod M, Sauer H, Cannon T, Huttunen M, Murray R, Kahn RS. Reliability of brain volumes from multicenter MRI acquisition: a calibration study. Hum Brain Mapp. 2004 Aug;22(4):312-20.

Van Haren NE, Cahn W, Hulshoff Pol HE, Schnack HG, Caspers E, Lemstra A, Sitskoorn MM, Wiersma D, van den Bosch RJ, Dingemans PM, Schene AH, Kahn RS. Brain volumes as predictor of outcome in recent-onset schizophrenia: a multi-center MRI study. Schizophr Res. 2003 Nov 1;64(1):41-52.

Invited

Van Haren NE. (2004). (N)euroimaging. Advances in schizophrenia and clinical psychiatry, 1, 111-113.

Van Haren NE. (2006). Highlights from the 3rd annual meeting of the Association of European Psychiatrists Section of Neuroimaging, May 4-5 2006, Utrecht, Netherlands. Advances in schizophrenia and clinical psychiatry, 2, 147-148.

Nederlands
Cahn W & van Haren NE. (2005). Schizofrenie: een progressief beloop? In: Schizofrenie 1: Het concept. Ed: Wunderink L. Leusden: Mark Two Communications.
ISBN: 90 77585 31 1

Boks MP, van der Schot A, van Haren NEM. (2008). Neurobiologische aspecten. In: Handboek Bipolaire Stoornis. Editors: R. Kupka, E Knoppert-van der Klein, W. Nolen. Utrecht: De tijdstroom.
ISBN:978 90 5898 1172